Interesting Developments

[Danzig]

seems a couple horses from out west last year didn't do so well on poly, ran ok on dirt, but still didn't make much of a dent in kentucky. gayego immediately leaps to mind. seems like some of the horses pyro beat up on last year in LA had success elsewhere. pyro of course fell on his face in ky, and hasn't done much since then to redeem himself-so that should rule out giving much weight to friesan fire. and yes, i know it's a new year. i also know he hasn't run past 1 1/16th, and is taking a seven week breather before the derby. i'm not so sure both those moves can be overcome, along with a 20 horse field.

as for what a horse is bred for-all you can really say for sure is that they're bred to run. some of course do it faster than others. other than that, until they try a surface, it's all conjecture. i wouldn't bet one red cent at the derby on pioneerofthenile fwiw. the 10f distance and large field are the only two new things these horses should face that day.



and as for how well armed finished in dubai, that's just hilarious. he's not much, and didn't face much. the fact he's the top rated dirt horse in the world is a riot.

[Travis Stone]

Originally Posted by Danzig

seems a couple horses from out west last year didn't do so well on poly, ran ok on dirt, but still didn't make much of a dent in kentucky. gayego immediately leaps to mind. seems like some of the horses pyro beat up on last year in LA had success elsewhere. pyro of course fell on his face in ky, and hasn't done much since then to redeem himself-so that should rule out giving much weight to friesan fire. and yes, i know it's a new year. i also know he hasn't run past 1 1/16th, and is taking a seven week breather before the derby. i'm not so sure both those moves can be overcome, along with a 20 horse field.

I'm not sure using any comparison to last year's crop is wise as they were extremely weak overall.

The dirt/synth debate could go on all night and never get anywhere. It's extremely horse specific in my opinion. Lumping all synth winners into turfers is dangerous, and visa-versa.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Travis Stone

I'm not sure using any comparison to last year's crop is wise as they were extremely weak overall.

The dirt/synth debate could go on all night and never get anywhere. It's extremely horse specific in my opinion. Lumping all synth winners into turfers is dangerous, and visa-versa.

my only real comparison to last year is to say that a horse can look strong in the preps, only to bomb in may-and perhaps ever after (such as in pyros case).

as for the other, you have to take each horse on its own. some like one surface, some like multiple surfaces obviously. i know wait a while was good on turf, but hated synthetics-so of course you can't automatically assume anything. but it's my thought that only the best horses are versatile and can/will handle multiple surfaces and emerge victorious.